Court Shuts Down Mississippi Tax Return Preparer

Today a federal court in Jackson, Mississippi permanently barred Christopher Chamberlin from preparing federal tax returns for others.  In addition to enjoining Chamberlin from preparing, filing, or assisting in the preparation or filing of federal tax returns and amended returns, the court ordered Chamberlin to deliver a copy of the injunction to all customers for whom he prepared a return after Jan. 1, 2014, and deliver a list of those customers to the United States.  The court also ordered Chamberlin to turn over copies of all returns he prepared since Jan. 1, 2014, to the United States.

On April 8, the government filed suit against Chamberlin and alleged that he prepared federal income tax returns for customers that claimed fabricated business losses for customers who did not have a business and fictitious losses from farming businesses for customers who did not own farms.  The government alleged that Chamberlin reported the fictitious losses and expenses to generate and/or increase the Earned Income Tax Credit or to create a larger refund than his customers otherwise would have been able to claim.

Return preparer fraud is one of the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2016.  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.  In the past decade, the Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers.  Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website.  An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page.  If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.